About Us

The Victorian Emporium is the product of an idea conceived, developed and refined by me, Emma and my husband, Simon during the miserable winter of 2010/2011 and our first six months into our current renovation of a large Victorian house.

We’d just come down from the high of selling our Tudor home in Buckinghamshire for more than we had dreamt of, and the reality was hitting us of living in a scruffy neglected and draughty house whilst trying to renovate it, earn a living and bring up two small boys.

Inspired by the 5 previous period house renovations we had undertaken together and encouraged by the words of enthusiasm from our friends and family when we mentioned our new idea, we set about bringing to light The Victorian Emporium: a place that renovators of period properties could come to purchase all of those products that are really hard to find and to get ideas, support, knowledge and inspiration. Over the previous 16 years we’d gleaned knowledge of how to do tricky jobs, how to hire the right kind of people to help you renovate sympathetically, and essentially knowledge of how and where to find those products that make the difference between a really successful project that home magazines will want to feature and will eventually sell for top dollar, and making a real mess of everything and spending a fortune. We wanted to share this knowledge and help others avoid ruining those precious period gems through ignorance or thoughtlessness and show people that renovating in a sympathetic way needn’t cost the earth.

The Victorian Emporium was launched in summer 2012 and we are going from strength to strength adding new products and articles on a regular basis and helping more and more people taking on renovation projects to make them a success. In addition Emma has just won Best Online Business Category at the Business Women Awards 2017 and we were a finalist in the Best Business Category too. If you have any suggestions for the site both in terms of product and content please let us know.